


Strange Constellations That You Gave New Meaning

by Geonn



Category: Sanctuary (TV), Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Bloodplay, Drama, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mash-up, Multi, Romance, Rough Sex, Tragedy, Vampire Sex, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 02:45:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/498573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seventy years after its discovery, Admiral Samantha Carter stands guard over Britain's most secret weapon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange Constellations That You Gave New Meaning

**Author's Note:**

> Second story of "Lights Will Guide You Home," following "We Will Lie Beneath Different Stars" (http://archiveofourown.org/works/461393)

Admiral Samantha Carter of the Royal Navy entered the control room, turning her head to watch as the Stargate came to life. Over a century since discovering the device in the sands of Egypt, and nearly eighty since allowing it to be officially unearthed in Giza, and they were still discovering the device's capabilities. She took position behind Sir Walter, who dutifully recorded the IDC from the screen and retracted the iris. He spoke without needing her to ask: "HMGT-1, ma'am."

Sam smiled. "Very good, Walter. Thank you." She left him and went to meet the team in the embarkation room. Her Majesty's Gate Team-1, the flagship team of the Stargate program, came through the event horizon as she reached the base of the ramp, and Samantha couldn't help smiling at the sight of them in one piece. "Welcome back, GT-1. An uneventful mission, I take it?"

Captain John Druitt removed his goggles and smiled. "The Goa'uld have deigned to leave us alone once more, Lady Carter."

"Glad to hear it, Mr. Druitt." Samantha glanced at the rest of the team who, other than appearing a bit tired, were all in one piece. Commander Helen Magnus, dark hair done into a complex braid, greeted the Admiral with a smile and a slight dip of her chin. The team's resident scholar, Dr. James Watson, appeared irritated but managed to spare her a smile as always. And trailing beyond the rest, stoic and lost in his own thoughts, was the foreigner, Nikola Tesla. He looked up as he passed her but offered no outward appearance of greeting. Samantha waited until he passed before she spoke.

"Hardly respectful, Mr. Tesla."

He turned to look at her but didn't slow. "I'm not a member of your Navy, Admiral, and I'm not a subject of your Queen." He smiled tightly and brushed past the rest of his team.

Druitt tightened his jaw. "Once again I apologize for him."

"No need." Samantha gestured for him to lead the way out of the embarkation room, and she fell into step beside him. "I'm sure he's only pouting because he wished to remain planet-side longer. The technology must have been quite interesting to make him so brusque upon his return."

"Force fields," James said, "with no discernable power source. It drove him mad to leave."

Samantha grinned. "I anticipate your mission briefing with bated breath. Forty-five minutes, if you please."

Druitt touched his brow with two fingers in a lazy salute before leading his team forward. Nikola was already waiting at the elevators, hands clasped behind his back and head bowed as he retreated into his mind where, she was sure, the schematics of the technology he'd been deprived of taking apart were stored. Samantha kept her eye on him a moment longer before going back upstairs to her office.

#

"At times I think you do it just to vex me."

Samantha rolled her eyes. He was pacing in front of her desk, one hand on his hip and the other plucking at the lapel of his off-duty jumpsuit. "Yes, Dr. Tesla, I purposely schedule your missions for the most frustrating length of time. It simply isn't feasible for you to spend months in a lab on some planet until you've figured out the latest puzzle."

"I know. Of course I know. But that's only part of the problem, Admiral. As much as I crave time, the time to truly appreciate the wonders being laid before me, I know the _next_ planet holds treasures I can't even begin to conceive. And I know it's just waiting. It's this constant, eternal... scratching of the surface that I can't bear. A literal universe at my fingertips and I'm stuck bouncing from one to the next like a ball bearing."

Samantha stood and rounded her desk. "You should count yourself fortunate you're on the team at all. Had Churchill not demanded control of the Stargate during World War II, the Americans would have seized control of it. Do you think their military would have allowed you to be a member of the front line team?"

He glared at her, which was as good as acknowledging she was right. Samantha smiled and touched his cheek. "Ah, Nik. Time. Time, time... I've seen one hundred and fifty years and the only constant is a lack of time."

Nikola turned his head and kissed the inside of her wrist. Samantha put her other hand on the back of his head and stepped forward, parting her lips just before he kissed them. In the years since parting with Jack, and later with Daniel, she had refused herself long-standing commitments. Both men were still alive, still wandering the world nursing hurt feelings and decades-old grudges, and she'd seen neither of them since the seventies. She sufficed with random romantic interludes. Diana had been a wonderful tryst, one that had unfortunately ended with the princess going into hiding. And Kate. Oh, Kate... returning glamour to the royal family after far too long.

But Nikola Tesla refused to become just a fling. Even confirming as she undressed him the first time that it could go no further than that one night, he clung to her body and mind. And she found herself falling for him again and again like a drunkard to the drink. Over the decades many lovers had lusted for her body, but with Nikola that was only a secondary consideration. He broke the kiss and spoke against her mouth, eyes open just enough that she could see the dark pupils. 

"Speak to me of quantum mechanics and wormhole physics..."

Samantha growled and forced a kiss on him. The only physical reaction she cared about was the one caused by having a man press the length of his body against hers. She brushed his lips with her tongue before pulling away, eyes closed. She massaged the back of his neck with sure strokes of her fingers.

"Perhaps I can arrange for you to be loaned to GT-6 for an extended mission of research."

He smiled. "And would you be able to travel to the planet for progress reports? Perhaps overnight stays?"

Samantha rolled her eyes and kissed him again. "You're never satisfied, are you?"

"When it comes to you? Never." He moved his hand into her hair, cut in a mannish style shortly after she received her current commission. In reality, she had been in charge of the Stargate program since its inception in 1930. She had led her friends through to other worlds, first simply to explore and build diplomatic ties. But then a small-minded German began making a fuss, and the Crown saw another opportunity for their latest acquisition. Helen and her friends used their unique powers to convince other worlds to share their technology with us. Britain beat back the Nazis and ended the war by 1940. Britain was once again the world's major power, overshadowing the upstart United States and beginning a new renaissance for the British Isles.

Samantha remembered the ceremony. Her friends were knighted; she and Janet became Lady Carter and Lady Fraiser. And the Stargate Project became unimpeachable. Requests for funding were approved almost before they could be sent. Personnel arrived by the busload whenever they were needed. And when it came to the best and brightest the world had to offer, the Crown was marvelous at coercing them to join up.

And that was how Lady Carter had met the brilliant, and brilliantly aggravating, Nikola Tesla. She moaned helplessly into his mouth as he kissed her, surrendering to his superior strength. He pressed her into the side of her desk, and she tightened her hand on the back of his neck as he used his thigh to ease hers apart. She could feel the strong muscle of his leg through her trousers and remembered how easy it was for a woman in modern dress to get out of sorts very, very quickly. Unseemly, in her position.

"Enough," she said against his mouth. He pressed his hips to hers. "Nikola..."

He pulled back far enough that she could see him smile. "I wasn't sure if you meant it this time."

She blushed and remembered the night she had whispered for him not to listen to her protestations. They picked a word to mean "stop," but she'd never uttered it. She pushed his hand away from her hip. "In my office, enough means enough. Understood, Dr. Tesla?"

"Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say, ma'am." 

Samantha whimpered. "Bastard." She closed her eyes to compose herself and raked her fingernails over his neck. "My quarters. This evening. I will give you a proper homecoming." She gave him a searing look that made his lips curl into a suggestive smile. He kissed her once more and stepped away. As they separated, she glanced down and saw the bulge in his jumpsuit

She cleared her throat. "Take a moment before returning to your duties, Dr. Tesla. Use the time to inform me of the latest wonderful discoveries my horrible schedule prevented you from bringing to the world."

He raised an eyebrow. "You think discussing technology will _lessen_ my arousal, Admiral?"

She grinned. "Give it the old college try."

#

Helen removed the accoutrements of her uniform in front of her locker, standing before the open door with her hands back to undo the braid. Admiral Carter wasn't a stickler for such ridiculous regulations; there was a time and a place where a soldier having long hair could be detrimental, but she felt her people deserved to be comfortable on their own base. She kept on her black T-shirt, having exchanged her on-duty BDUs for off-duty. She didn't see much of a difference in them, but some regulations needed to be followed blindly.

She closed the locker door to see that Captain Druitt was lounging against the locker next to hers, arms crossed, casually waiting to be acknowledged.

"Bloody bastard!" She put a hand over her heart and smiled despite her tone.

"Careful, Commander. You'll be written up for insubordination should the Admiral hear you speak such language to your commanding officer."

She gripped his lapels and leaned in to him. "Yeah? Whatever would she think if she heard some of the truly awful things I've said to you? 'Bugger my ass, sir. I want to see you come in his mouth, Captain Druitt. Oh, James, harder...'" She furrowed her brow. "Ah. That last wasn't you, was it?"

He grinned and kissed her. "What shall we tell our dear leader about this last mission, hm?" His hand trailed down the front of her chest, tracing the line of her bra through the thin material of the dark shirt. 

"We'll tell her what she needs to know. Nothing more."

"But will she be satisfied?"

"Yes." She rolled her eyes and moved her lips over the stubble of his cheek. She knew what was coming, but she played along. "She'll be satisfied if I'm the one who tells her."

"And why, praytell, would that be?"

Helen moved her lips to John's ear. "Because she likes to suck my fingers after I've made her come. Because she has an ivory prick in her desk drawer that she loves to see me ride." She nipped the lobe of his ear. "Because she is as wrapped around my finger as you and our dear boy are." 

"I see," John growled. He slid his hands up under her arms, his thumbs brushing the side of both breasts as he turned her around and pressed her against the wall of lockers. She gasped in surprise, and he covered her mouth with his. He moved his hands to the front of her belt and Helen pressed both palms against his shoulders.

"Not here," she whispered.

"Yes. Right here." He shoved her waistband over the curve of her ass, his fingers gripping the flesh just below her panties. He silenced her protest with a kiss, and Helen moaned helplessly as his tongue thrust into her mouth. She moved her hands down his chest, over his flat stomach, and she unzipped his trousers. He pulled back long enough to hiss, then captured her mouth again. Helen drew his cock out with one hand, guiding it into the palm of the other, and stroked him once from base to tip. Then she gripped the base tightly.

"John."

A sharp exhale. His lips rested against hers but the kiss had already ended.

"Stop for now. Or you never will again."

Their eyes locked. For a moment, the only sound in the lockers was the steady dripping of faucets in the shower area. Then he smiled, shifted his weight, and Helen released his cock. She turned away so he could adjust himself, holding every muscle tense so none of them will betray her with a tremor. Their first year with the Stargate Project, an energy being attached itself to John as he passed through the event horizon. It formed a symbiotic relationship with him, growing more powerful with each trip through the Stargate and forcing him to become equally strong to combat it. The creature provided an outlet for John's darker urges, removed the last few barriers that made him a good man and turned him into a monster. 

Lady Fraiser deemed the energy creature was far too volatile to be removed and exist as a separate entity, so it was transferred into one of Nikola's computer programs. It lived, it was a sentient being, and often it taunted them with messages that John Druitt was forever changed. He would never again be the loving, kind man he had been before. 

So he tested them. He pushed too far with Helen, he assaulted James in public, he berated Nikola off-world. They were ordered to pull no punches, and they gave him no quarter. It was always clear, when the ruse ended, that he had returned to 'normal.' But Helen dreaded the day when that look remained in his eye and she knew they would have to put him down like a dog.

He touched her shoulders and she leaned back against him. "This evening, then?"

"Yes." She tilted her head and he kissed her cheek, leaving her in the locker room. James came in as John went out, and they exchanged a glance. He watched John go down the hall, then faced Helen. She smiled. "He tested me."

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." James came to her anyway and kissed the corners of her mouth. He alone knew how much John's mock-assaults wore on her. He touched her cheek.

"Have you showered yet?"

"I was going to skip it."

He slid his hand down her arm and took her hand. "Come on."

She let him lead her into the showers, then she let him undress her. She repaid the kindness for him, bowing at the waist to briefly take the head of his cock into her mouth. She sucked gently until it was plump, then took his hand to guide him into the stall. They closed the door and put their arms around one another, Helen rising on her toes to kiss his lips.

"Gentle," she whispered as his tongue traced her mouth.

"But of course," James said.

She smiled and let him press her against the wall. James was never anything but gentle with her; he was the perfect remedy to one of John's tests.

#

Unlike Samantha, Janet didn't believe in letting the year dictate her style. She was a Victorian woman, tried and true, and her clothing echoed that. She wore her hair long, piled at the base of her neck in a complicated bun. She did wore clothing from the turn of the previous century, though she did tend toward male clothes when she was working. She wore a high-collared dress shirt with a feminine bow at the throat, a dark vest that left only the smallest inverted pyramid of the shirt exposed, and a jacket with sleeves that ended just at the wrist. She also wore a pair of round, lavender-shaded eyeglasses to hide the fact her eyes were onyx stones set into blue-veined pale flesh.

They had no idea why her reaction to the turning was so dire. The handful of others Teal'c had turned didn't share her affliction. Samantha suggested it had something to do with the fact Janet had already inherited a trait from the Source blood (her invisibility) and the permanent shift of her eyes was her body's rebellion at another drastic change. Whatever the reason, those who knew her were accustomed to the oddity of her wearing sunglasses in an underground bunker. It was likely the strangest thing they would have to deal with during the course of a day.

She had turned in 1945, when it became obvious the youth granted to them by the Source blood would eventually wear off. In ten years, or twenty, or even fifty, she would succumb to age. Teal'c had begged her to reconsider his offer to change her and, for his sake, she had agreed. Her hair was now permanently streaked gray, and the wrinkles around her eyes and lips would grow no deeper. Teal'c didn't seem to mind the signs of advanced age, so she didn't let it bother her, either.

The infirmary was quiet enough that she heard Teal'c as soon as he stepped out of the elevator. It had taken her years to get used to the heightened senses; much longer than it had taken to adjust to the idea of drinking blood. There was no real adjustment in the latter case. Her body needed blood, and craved it. Once she took her first taste and realized it wasn't objectionable, she hadn't looked back. It was like a human eating shellfish. The initial revulsion was quickly and easily quelled. 

She looked up as Teal'c stepped into the room. He had followed the trends, as had Samantha, Jack, and Daniel. She had to admit they looked delectable in their finery, and she smiled as she stood. "Darling. I was just thinking about you." She put her hand on his chest and tilted her head up for a kiss. She tasted blood in his mouth and clapped a hand to the back of his head, moaning as she pushed her tongue into his mouth to identify the taste. He gripped her forearm hard, hard enough to bruise her before she'd changed, but she only growled and continued her assault. That was another adjustment. She healed quickly and pain wasn't quite as painful to her. Since 1960, she and Teal'c had become very, very creative in their lovemaking. Vampire flesh _could_ scar, she'd discovered, but other wounds healed perfectly.

She pulled back with a gasp and licked her lips. "Asgard?"

He grinned. "I have never been able to fool you, my love."

It was hardly fair to accept the victory. Asgardian blood had an unmistakable taint to it. When Captain Druitt learned they had been observing Earth for decades, Nikola theorized they had noted the resurgence of vampires and adjusted the chemical admixture they used to create blood for their clone bodies.

"Do you mean they designed themselves to be tasty?" James had said. "Because I swear, I'd have gone the absolute other direction."

Nikola shrugged. "A potential bargaining chip for future relations, perhaps."

It had worked. The vampire population on P-3027 craved Asgard blood like nothing else, and were willing to make countless concessions for access to it. Teal'c was serving as ambassador, delicately balancing his mission and his desire to not take advantage of the vampires simply because they lived on another planet.

"You're home early," Janet said, still savoring the aftertaste from her beloved's mouth. "Did something go wrong?"

"Something went right," Teal'c said. "Negotiations were uneventful, and we completed the discussions with time to spare. P-3027 will receive their shipment tomorrow."

Janet smiled. "Splendid, my darling. We must celebrate this evening."

"I cannot wait. Lady Samantha is, I believe, scheduled to brief GT-1 on their last mission. After that I believe she will be occupied with Dr. Tesla. So it will have to just be you and I." She trailed her fingers down the front of his shirt and peered at him over the rims of her glasses. She pursed her lips into a pout. "I hope that will be acceptable, sir."

He gripped her bun and yanked her head back, drawing a yelp from her throat as he leaned forward. His head shadowed her face, and her lips trembled as he kissed the corners of them.

"You are what I crave. More than blood, more than air. You alone are enough, Lady Fraiser." 

She trembled, then smiled. "Good." She ran her tongue over her teeth, slicking them with saliva before letting them grow into a row of shark-like spears. "A taste, my love? I've not stopped for lunch and I'm positively starved..."

Teal'c's eyes became as black as hers. He released her hair and held eye contact as he undid the collar of his shirt.

"No." Janet ran her hands over his muscular chest, then grabbed the two halves of his shirt and pulled it open. She spun Teal'c with strength that was seemingly impossible for someone her size, pinning him to the wall before thrusting her head forward. Her teeth pierced the skin of his chest, and Teal'c cried out as she began to drink from him.

#

One ran. The other followed.

Jack O'Neill could move from one continent to the next with a mere thought. Daniel Jackson could deduce where Jack would go from years of acquaintance. It didn't matter how long he stayed in one place or how quickly he left, nine times a year he would look up to see Daniel walking into the village with an old daguerreotype asking, "Have you seen this man?" 

Daniel. With his bald pate, his scholarly beard, and the small glasses on the end of his nose. Affectations that made him appear so much older than he really was, lies to help sell the idea he was ageing with the rest of the world. Today he wore a white shirt with epaulets, a long thin tie hanging out in front of him like a banner of victory that swayed with his movements as he entered Jack's tent.

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume."

"That's my line."

Jack shrugged and tossed another log onto the fire. It crackled, filling the silence. Daniel examined Jack for signs of his age, but they weren't hard to find. His hair had gone snow-white, his once lean frame carrying a few extra stone. He wore a loose wrap around his torso that left his arms bare, and his feet were wrapped in leather straps that held a wooden plank to the soles. He looked homeless, save for being clean-shaven. He walked to the small chair next to his bed, sat, and looked up at Daniel.

"How long do you intend to continue this pursuit?"

"How long do you intend to run?" Daniel asked. "It's not as if we don't have the time."

Jack sneered and looked at the fire. "That's a double negative."

"Excuse my grammar. I've just climbed a damn mountain to get here."

"Go away, Daniel."

Daniel stepped forward. "Will you answer me one question? Which of us are you punishing? Me or her? Or yourself?"

Jack looked at him again, and Daniel shrunk in the direct lock of the other man's gaze. 

"Condemning yourself to this life won't change what happened. Squandering the gift you were given--"

"Gift?" It was nearly a shout, and Jack rose to his feet so quickly that Daniel thought he was about to get into a fistfight. "These aren't gifts. Our curses. Have you spoken to Fraiser since she let Teal'c bite her? She's terrifying now."

"She was always a little--"

"Don't." Barely a whisper, and Daniel fell silent. Jack took a moment to calm himself before he spoke again. "We weren't meant to live this long. No human is meant to live forever. This is not our world, Daniel. And it's a lie to act like we belong here. I'm not running from you, goddamn it. I'm running because the time I spend between places is a second, or half a second, or a breath that I'm not spending here. Taking up space I should have given up long ago."

Daniel shook his head. "I never envisioned you as a quitter."

"Then perhaps you never knew the real me." He turned and looked at the fire. A knot burst, and Daniel remembered the slamming door on the night Samantha revealed what they had done.

_"You had no right."_

_"He's my child," Samantha said._

_"Not just yours." He spun on Daniel. "How could you let her do this?"_

_Daniel said, "She saved your son, Jack. What does she have to apologize for?"_

An infusion of blood, unwanted and not consented, injected into the vein of a little boy with a grievous illness. Samantha's blood, with its special properties that hadn't been transferred in utero, coursing through the veins of her child to save his life. To forever freeze him at ten years old, but to ensure he would live to see past that age. 

_"How can you be angry?" She was literally dumbfounded by his reaction. "Don't you see what this means? For medicine, for the advancement of the species? If we keep notes--"_

_He slapped her. "He. Is not. An Experiment."_

Daniel still remembered the seizure in his chest at the sound of Jack's hand hitting Samantha's cheek. As far as he knew, they hadn't been in the same room since that fateful moment. Daniel, as the odd man out in the argument, took it upon himself to be their ombudsman. Peace talks failed, miserably, and each accused him of taking the other's side. Then, one evening, Jack was simply gone when Daniel went to speak with him. That was thirty years ago.

Tyler lived off-world with a society where his apparent age would be less of a hindrance to having a normal life. He shared his father's opinion of the infusion that saved his life, and he refused to speak of his mother as a living, breathing person. Daniel did his best to bridge the gap between them but, after a few decades of being shunned, he had sensed Samantha letting go. Tyler had no mother and, though it broke her heart, Samantha accepted that she no longer had a son.

"I lost you all," Daniel said softly. "Don't come back. Don't even say you can see her side of the argument. But the least you can do is apologize to _me_."

"I have nothing to apologize for," Jack said.

Daniel put his hat on and turned to leave. "You have nothing for which to apologize. You ended that lie with a preposition. Bastard." He walked out and paused, looking up at the winter sun striving to break through the clouds. It was hard to believe it was, at that moment, shining on the Sahara desert. Heat and frost, depending on your position. The air that froze you at one altitude would scorch your flesh at sea level. 

"I'll not pursue you much longer, Jack. You should be aware of that." He waited. When he turned, as he suspected, the room behind him was empty. Daniel brushed at his cheeks and walked down the stone path to begin plotting the next leg of his endless journey.

#

Janet clung to Teal'c, her arm on his chest and her bent leg draped over his hip. His cock, flaccid now that she had driven it to its limits, lay against the bend of her knee. She could feel it there, between her thigh and calf, and was tempted to begin tensing and relaxing the muscle to tease him back to hardness. But no. He was exhausted, drained of his fluids thanks to her. She grinned and lifted her head to lick the sweat from his chest. She had drank everything else he had to offer, so why not his sweat? 

She heard something shift against cloth and turned her head toward the disturbance. The ambassador, pale with curls of dark hair framing her face, smiled nervously under the vampire's gaze. Teal'c was too weak to lift his head, but Janet knew his eyes were on the woman. She sat on the foot of the bed, legs tucked under her, arms pressed tight against her sides to accentuate her breasts. There were scars on her neck, breasts, arms, and thighs. Barely an hour old, they would be completely gone by morning.

The ambassador's smile wavered. Janet reached out and curled a finger. "Come here, darling."

The woman rose and crawled up Teal'c's legs, eyes wide and bottom lip trembling as she braced herself above their midsections. Her eyes moved from Janet, to Teal'c, and back again. Janet sat up and stroked the young (relatively speaking) woman's cheek. She touched her bottom lip. The ambassador had come from America to negotiate treaties, but she became enamored with the vampire cultures rapidly spreading across the galaxy. And when it came to vampires on Earth, there was only one source of information worth using.

Janet and Teal'c didn't mind having their brains picked. They had come to a decision that was mutually beneficial to all involved. 

"Hello, Elizabeth," Janet cooed.

"Hi." Elizabeth Weir's voice shook, and her smile was nervous. She gave an unconscious shrug of her shoulders as she looked down. "That was... gorgeous. I've never seen anything like this. And the feel of you drinking my blood?" Her eyes came up again, wide with splendor. She exhaled and shook her head. "I've read descriptions, but nothing..." A tear rolled down her cheek, and Janet leaned in to lick it away.

"Would you give yourself to us again, Elizabeth?"

"Yes." The last letter trailed and became a hiss as Janet tilted her head and kissed Elizabeth's neck. "Yes, God, yes."

Janet took Elizabeth's hand and moved it to Teal'c's face. She watched as he parted his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist. A moment later, her back arched and she cried out in a confusing combination of pleasure and pain. Janet smiled. 

Elizabeth had come to them of her own free will, but she knew that by morning the ambassador's free will in regards to being bitten would be gone. She wouldn't be able to resist them. She wet Elizabeth's neck with her tongue, a sensual undulation that made Elizabeth rub her thighs together. Janet fully believed in combining arousal with the process of drinking. Once Elizabeth was thrusting her hips, feet still crossed at the ankle underneath her rump, Janet released her fangs and sank them into Elizabeth's flesh.

Once she had slaked her thirst, it would be just another scar... gone by morning.

#

Admiral Samantha Carter toweled herself off, wrapping the towel around her body as she stepped out of the bathroom. She tucked the ends of the towel together under her arm and smiled at the man lounging on the bed. He wore only trousers, his hairless chest bare. He turned toward her and smiled, and Samantha couldn't stop herself from responding. They would be in such trouble if anyone found out she was fraternizing with a member of their frontline team. But even the Queen wouldn't dismiss Lady Samantha Carter from her current position. Over the course of a hundred and some-odd years, she had become the most powerful woman in the British Isles. 

She sat on the edge of the bed and Nikola shifted his weight. He knelt behind her, leaned her back until her weight rested against his lean chest, and his hands began to massage her tired muscles. Sometimes she thought the tension he rubbed away stretched all the way back to the nineteenth century. Those glory days in Oxford. Would she have stopped herself from experimenting had she known what lay in store? And what fate would have befallen the planet if she had?

Nikola's hands strayed and he kissed the shell of her ear. "Any special requests?"

"Yes." She turned and kissed his forearm. "Make me feel human again."

"I shall endeavor, my Lady."

His fingers plucked the towel away from her, and she allowed him to lower her to the mattress.

#

GT-1's latest team building exercise ended with James spending himself in Helen's mouth while John pressed hard against his cohort from behind. Helen swallowed and stroked James' hip, the two of them lying together in the middle of the bed John had just vacated. Helen slid up James' body, kissing his chest and then he tasted the remnants of his orgasm on her tongue. John returned and cleaned James' buttocks and thighs, then joined them on the mattress. He pressed against James from behind, arms stretching out to pull Helen against James' chest.

Helen laughed and lifted her head to kiss John over James' shoulder. James turned and kissed John when Helen released him, and six hands ran over the tight flesh of three bodies. 

Afterward, watching them sleep, Helen felt the suspicion that something was wrong. Their lives, their world, the events swirling around them, were all off somehow. It had started as a child, a vague suspicion that she was born into the wrong age. She never understood cars, though she could drive one, and computers seemed far too advanced to her. Sometimes when she looked at Lady Fraiser, she felt as if she belonged in a corset and petticoats. When they found the quantum mirror, James theorized that she was feeling homesick for a different reality. 

"There is a multitude of possibilities, yes. But that doesn't preclude the possibility that one reality is the correct one. A prime universe, if you will."

"But how can we tell if we are in the prime universe or not?"

James smiled sadly. "I doubt the Helen Magnus in the prime universe would even think to ask that question. She would simply know."

At the time it had made her sad to think their universe was secondary or perhaps tertiary to some other unknown world. But here, with the taste of James in her mouth and the ghost of John's cock between her legs, their arms folding over her like a harness, she couldn't imagine a universe more correct than the one in which she was currently residing.


End file.
